Customer Reviews

Gustav Holst: The Man and his Music

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Holst was a gentle soul of rare talent and accomplishment. Exceptionaly well researched and well written biography. This is THE standard Holst biography. Why this is out of print is a complete mystery. May be available at your local library -- if you're lucky. I was and read it. I would very much like to obtain a copy. So, whoever has rights to publishing this work, perhaps another printing or a new edition is in order? Where else is one to go for a thorough Holst biography? Highly recommended.

This long-time-out-of-print book is clearly the definitive book on Gustav Holst, his life and the undercurrents of his music. Holst was a character of enigmatic dichotomy: he was at once friendly, greragious, jolly and rumbustious - but at the same time solitary, remote and seemingly aloof. He was concerned with the warmth of human relationships, but with mystical speculations as well. His thought and music could be simultaneously simple AND complex. He was a straightforward schoolmaster and a restless, introspective artist at the same time.

Many of his friends noticed the contrast between his vigorous and outgoing nature and his other-worldliness: as if he had acess to SOME SPECIAL KNOWLEDGE OF THE UNIVERSE, which they had not. And of such mystery is his music, he is one of the most important composers of the first half of the 20th century and it is a shame, that of his marvellous works only "The Planets", "The Hymn of Jesus" and the "St. Pauls's Suite" are more widely known, despite the fact, that his entire oevre has been marvelously recorded on CD (check Chandos.com for more on this).

As Ralph Vaughan-Williams one put it, it is "the blend of the realist with the visionary, that gives Holst's music its distinctive character", and this clearly mirrors in Holst's life, for instance in his interest in the Socialist music movement at the turn of the century and simultaneously his private studies of Sanskrit and of Vedic scriptures.

Why this book has been out of print for almost twenty years (since 1990 to be exact) is a complete mystery to me! After a meticulous search for this book in more or less all used bookstores I was able to contact - either online or in real life - I was finally able to abtain a copy of this book from a Manchester bookstore.

.. and I haven't had any reason to regret my purchase. No buyer's remorse at all.

Strongly recommended for each and everyone interested in Holst's life and work.